After fighting with her boyfriend, Ettie’s only goal is to drown her sorrows in some Jack Daniels. But when she walks into a country tavern, her attention is immediately redirected to the sexy, older man at the bar. He looks lonely, and sad, and absolutely mouth-watering. Ettie can’t wait to put a smile on his face.

For the first time in two years, Wyatt finds himself jolted out of his grief—and by a spunky, vivacious young woman who somehow sees right into his soul. What follows is a passionate weekend full of more life, laughter, and pure joy than he experienced in twenty years of marriage.

After they part ways, Wyatt realizes that his feelings for Ettie run deeper than lust. He knows she has a boyfriend, but when he finds out that the boyfriend is his own son, Blake, Wyatt is shattered. He despairs of ever overcoming the guilt he’s slowly drowning in. But Ettie’s resilience and optimism might just save him after all.

This Is Now is the sexy, heartwarming story of overcoming grief, embracing love, and learning to live in the moment.

Excerpt

He didn't look up at me when he spoke. He was sopping up hollandaise sauce with a biscuit. "We should do this again, Ettie. Next weekend. How about it?"

My heart was suddenly thundering in my ears. I watched him as he pointedly focused on cleaning his plate. "Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" I asked.

He finally looked up. Those blue eyes were hypnotic. And heartbreaking. "I'm asking you to have another fun weekend with me. That's what I'm asking."

My eyes fluttered as they started to sting. "Do you need to get to know me better before asking me to be your girlfriend?"

His jaw muscles tensed. "Ettie, I..."

"Look, Wyatt. I have had just the absolute best time of my life with you this weekend. I have all the information I need to know I want to be in a relationship with you."

He snorted and leaned back in his chair. "You don't know shit about me, Ettie. This was fun. But it was superficial and you know it."

My chest constricted. I had to take a moment to swallow back the pain. "It wasn't superficial. I'm sorry it didn't mean as much to you as it did to me..."

"It meant plenty and that's why I want to see you again. So let's do it, Ettie. Next weekend. We'll meet at the bar Friday and maybe we could road trip down to Gulf Shores or something. Or we could go zip-lining up at Cave City. All kinds of fun shit we could do together. That's what I want."

"I want to go home with you."

He looked away and shook his head in frustration.

About the Author

Carter Ashby was born and raised in Missouri. She is wife to a supportive, hard-working geek; homeschooling mother to three, future social miscreants; and caregiver to a high-strung, epileptic chihuahua and a severely accident-prone hound dog. Carter writes country romances and reads anything that sounds interesting.

In this raw, emotional memoir, Nate Bennett shares the blog he maintained to work through his grief over the sudden loss of his wife Shannon. He is surprised and comforted to discover a vast virtual community of support. His blog posts—alternately poignant and of dry wit—eventually attracted tens of thousands of hits and a following from readers who hadn’t known the couple. This unique book gives the reader a window into the starkness of a widower’s grieving experience in real time. What comes through in virtually every post is his love for Shannon as he weaves in vignettes from their life together, chronicling their love story and his efforts to recover. And in the end, with the support of his virtual community and the strength he was able to draw from remembering Shannon’s wishes for him, he finds love again.

Today I am thinking about the best age
to become a widower. The question came to mind because I found myself thinking
that from where I stood, the grass was greener in every direction. I hate the
self-pity—I really do. So I was
trying to work my way through it to get past it.

If I was younger, I might not have
Spencer and Reid. Or I might be in a severe struggle to try to raise them
right. Or I would have lots of mobility restrictions. But if I was younger I
would feel like there was still enough runway ahead to use to launch something
great. If I was older, I might not feel as frightened about spending the time I
have left alone. I might be able to just work myself to death. I like my work—so that isn’t as bad as it sounds. But 30 years of
working myself to death is too long.

I think I am a widower at the worst age.
I am a ‘tweener widower. Too
old for round two, too young to throw in the towel. So much for working through
the self-pity!

Changing the sheets today. The thought
passed that I could wash the sheets half as often if I slept for a week on my
side and then a week on Shannon’s
side. Think of all the water I would save the planet. I could be an eco-hero. I
quickly realized that I am careful when I go to bed, when I wake up, when I
walk around the bedroom, to NOT look at Shannon’s
side of the bed. I have her side of the bed covered with pillows. I think part
of me is trying to “hide” her side of the bed from the rest of me.
So I don’t think I’ll be sleeping over there any time soon.

The final deep thought for the day was
that my bad moments come in two different flavors. I am not sure I understood
them this way before. One is when I am overcome by loneliness from missing
Shannon. I get very, very sad. That is a curl up in a ball and wait for it to
pass thing. The other is when I am overcome with fright about being alone. That
is a get up and do stuff to be distracted thing.

So today was a frightened about being
alone day. Boy, was I busy. Bank, carwash, tailor (she said “it’s
good to see you,” not
“how are you?”), Reid’s
bank, FedEx shop, lunch, grocery store, liquor store (for party Sunday).

Came out to the car, turned on the car.
Song playing on the radio is “Miss
You” by the Rolling

Stones. Really? Not fair.

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About the Author

In the fall of 2011, Nate lost his wife of 26 years in a shocking turn of events. She’d just had an outpatient procedure on her shoulder and the doctor sent Nate to get the car to bring her home. In the next few minutes, things went terribly wrong. Shannon collapsed, never to recover. After more than a week in a critical care unit in pursuit of a cure, Nate honored Shannon’s wishes and had her life support discontinued and she died shortly later. Nate’s book, Shannon’s Gift, is the result of the blog Nate kept during Shannon’s hospitalization and after her death. Initially, the purpose of the blog was to keep friends and family informed of Shannon’s condition. Quickly, though, the blog became Nate’s catharsis and a way to stay connected to a web of supporters.

After the sudden loss of his wife, Nate was surprised and comforted to discover a vast virtual community of support. His blog posts – alternately expressing poignancy and dry wit – eventually attracted tens of thousands of readers and a following from people around the world that didn’t even know Nate or his wife. The unique book gives the reader a window into the starkness of a widower’s grief in real time and a look at how social media has changed grieving in today’s world. In the end, with the support of his virtual community and the strength he was able to draw from remembering Shannon’s wishes for him, he finds love again.

While Nate is new to the personal memoir genre, he is co-author of two management books, "Riding Shotgun: The Role of the COO" and “Your Career Game: How Game Theory Can Help You Achieve Your Professional Goals.” Both are books published by Stanford University Press. Additionally, his research has been published in respected scholarly journals such as the Academy of Management Review, the Academy of Management Journal, Psychological Bulletin, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. He has also published in many widely read resources for managers including the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek.com and Forbes.com.

Nate Bennett is a professor of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University in the summer of 2012. From 1999 to 2012, he was on the faculty of the business school at Georgia Tech, where he most recently held the position of the Catherine W. and Edwin A. Wahlen Professor of Management. From 1999 until 2010, he served as associate dean and then as senior associate dean. Prior to Georgia Tech, he served on the faculty at Louisiana State University. While at LSU, he served at times as the management department’s Ph.D. program coordinator, department chair, MBA program director, and associate dean.

Nate holds a BA in sociology, as well as a MA in Social Research from Tulane University. He earned his Ph.D. in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He resides in Atlanta, GA.

Aubrey earned her love ‘em and leave ‘em reputation with her serial dating past. A pregnancy scare makes her see the light and change her ways. She gets serious about school and stops dating – until she meets Luka and falls head over heels for him.

Luka doesn’t trust easily after having his heart crushed by the girl next door. When he meets Aubrey, he doesn’t think she’s relationship material because of her past – even though he’s drawn to her.

What happens when the girl who always ran the moment a relationship got serious meets The One? Will Aubrey be able to get Luka to see herOutside the Box he’s put her in?

Excerpt

“Oomph,” I grunted into a hard chest as warm hands grasped my arms to steady me. I took a deep breath and a woodsy scent that was somehow both spicy and a little bit sweet hit my nose. I didn’t think I’d ever met a guy who smelled this good before.

“You okay?” a deep voice murmured.

“Yes,” I whispered as I looked up into green eyes, my hands resting against his chest.

“Good. Wouldn’t want to start my night off by mowing down defenseless women, now would I?” he asked as I moved away.

I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up at that since I’m the one who ran into him. “No, we certainly wouldn’t,” I said as I stepped into the elevator.

I watched his ass, lovingly hugged by his jeans, as he walked away with a couple of guys I hadn’t even noticed. And just like that, my libido jumped back to life. Holy fucking shit.

I absolutely adore reading - always have and always will. My friends growing up used to tease me when I would trail after them, trying to read and walk at the same time. If I have downtime, odds are you will find me reading or writing.

I am the mother of two wonderful sons who have inspired me to chase my dream of being an author. I want them to learn from me that you can live your dream as long as you are willing to work for it.

When I told my mom that my new year's resolution was to self-publish a book in 2013, she pretty much told me "About time!"

When investigative reporter Sally Evans receives her latest assignment to uncover the naked truth, she gets more than she bargained for.

Eight weeks on tour with the Naked Nights male stripper troupe to expose all their dirty secrets, is this serious reporter's worst nightmare. She'd rather a man keep his clothes on. For Sally, sex is only a consideration if it happens in the dark, not that she can remember the last time she had a reason to turn the lights off.

With over-eager, over-sexed female fans in abundance and baby oil by the gallon, the guys are looking forward to some fun.... Sally's inhibitions are not.

Passionate reader, blogger, publisher, and author. I love nothing more than helping other Indie authors publish their books be that reviewing, beta reading, formatting or proofreading,
I love erotic suspense that's well written and engages the reader, and I love promoting the heck out of it over on my book blog.